A common type of female electrical connector or receptacle is referred to in the industry as a telephone jack or "modular jack". Such a modular telephone connector includes a dielectric housing defining a standard telephone receptacle jack. A plurality of terminals are mounted in the housing, and each terminal includes a resilient cantilever jack contact portion projecting into a plug-receiving cavity or opening in the housing for engaging contacts of a standard telephone plug. Most often, the terminals are stamped and formed of sheet metal material and include terminating portions, such as wire insulation displacement portions, opposite the resilient cantilever jack contact portions. The wire insulation displacement portions receive insulated telephone wires.
A wide variety of designs for modular telephone connectors have been proposed to facilitate field installation. Any design should maximize ease of manipulation of the telephone wires and ease of assembly and termination of the connector. Unfortunately, heretofore, even with all of the various design proposals, such modular jacks still employ too many components which are difficult to manipulate and assemble, particularly with the every-increasing miniaturization of such components. Problems still are encountered with various designs of field installable modular telephone connectors because of their size, the assembly manipulations required and the difficulty of terminating the telephone wires to the connector.
This invention is directed to solving these problems by providing a unique modular electrical connector, particularly adaptable as a modular telephone connector or jack, which includes a one-piece molded housing which has various integral, relatively movable portions for effecting complete assembly and termination of the connector without any extraneous components or tools.